"Microbiome" has become a health and wellness buzzword, implicated as a contributing factor in conditions ranging from diabetes and obesity to gastrointestinal disease, autoimmune diseases and even autism. But the tools scientists use to cultivate bacteria have changed little over the past century, said Peter Christey, founder and CEO of San Carlos, Calif.-based startup General Automation Lab Technologies Inc. (GALT).

DUBLIN – Abalos Therapeutics GmbH raised €12 million (US$13.2 million) in series A funding to advance a distinctive approach to harnessing viruses for immuno-oncology applications.

LONDON – Mogrify Ltd. raised $16 million in the first close of a series A that it expects to at least double before closing the round in the next 12 months.

LONDON – Mirobio Ltd. has spun out of Oxford University, raising £27 million (US$33.3 million) to develop antibody-based therapies designed to activate immune checkpoint receptors in the treatment of autoimmune disorders.

Zielbio Inc., of Charlottesville, Va., closed on a $25.1 million series A financing to further its lead candidate, ZB-131, a humanized monoclonal antibody against cell surface plectin, which is expressed on the plasma membrane of ovarian, pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancer cells.

LONDON – Tacalyx GmbH has raised €7 million (US$7.7 million) in seed funding to initiate research on a new generation of antibodies targeted at tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) expressed on a wide variety of tumor cells.

Versatope Therapeutics Inc., a company developing a universal influenza vaccine in Lowell, Mass., has been awarded a contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases worth up to $17.9 million over five years to support completion of a phase I study slated to wrap up in 2022.

BEIJING – Chinese startup Biotheus Inc., of Zhuhai, Guangdong, has its sights fixed on bispecific and multitarget antibodies to maximize drug efficacy. A biotech innovator based in the south of China, it gained support from local authorities that aim to create another biotech hub in the country.

LONDON - Oncolytic virus startup Theolytics Ltd. is looking to raise a series A round as it prepares to take its first product into phase I in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Phagomed Biopharma GmbH, a Viennese company born of frustrations with the rise of multidrug-resistant infections and confidence in the potential for bacteriophage therapies to address them, has landed a €1.5 million (US$1.7 million) equity investment from new and existing investors. It's the second part of a €2.3 million seed financing, raised ahead of a series A round the company hopes to secure in 2020 to help it move toward the clinic in 2021.